Kickstarting your violin making journey (on a budget)

I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers… They use my tools.

Robert Moog

There’s some equipment you’ll have to put your hands on, others, not so much. I’ll try to list the absolute “must haves” tools in this post.

I’ll divide my reasoning here in two parts:

1. General woodworking tools
2. Specific violin making tools

Another thing: prices are relative to October/2023 and I assume you live in the UK, for simplification purposes and shipping international items. I’ll add not just tools, but the required wood as well: there’s no point only buying violin making tools without trying to build one.

General woodworking tools

1. Obvious things: pencil, chalk, rulers (one flexible plastic and one metal, 150mm/300mm), awl, burnisher (your awl or screw driver might serve as your “poor man’s” burnisher though), compass.
2. Vise/vice: this one is tricky as one might build an entire violin without ever needing one. I would say this is useful if you want to do general woodworking, it helps a lot. For violin making, you could just use work holding items or a base that supports working on wood with the help of clamps, etc. For a good vise, one could spend £25 (used).
3. Combination square (150mm): highly used to measure and test if your planning is perpendicular, without any gaps. Cost: £5.
4. Caliper: fundamental for measuring with precision (mine is not electronic – it infuriates me when it runs out of battery). A very nice one costs £10.
5. Wood plane: you’ll need at least one “jack-of-all-trades” plane: a N.4¹ (good brands are Stanley or Record). You’ll see some luthiers working on expensive Veritas-like fancy planes like a N.5 or a low angle plane, etc. Well, you need a trusted N.4 only – not even a block plane. You can buy a very decent one on Ebay or for sell in the UK for about £15. Of course you’ll need to learn how to use it and sharpen it.
6. Saw: I’d recommend use a “japanese saw”² (best, in my opinion) for initial belly/back cuts, bass bar, blocks, scroll
   • They work on the push side, they have a small kerf, useful for many tasks
   • ‘Ryoba’: double blade (one cross-cut and one rip-cut),  £25
   • ‘Dozuki’ tenon saw: reinforced top, £30 (you don’t necessarily need this one, except if you would be working in other projects)
7. Fret saw (or coping saw): you need this for carving out the f-holes mostly. It’s about £15 with some spare blades (they brake very easily).
8. Sharpening ‘station’: oh boy, this one is a huge rabbit hole. You will have to decide the method you like the most out of diamond plates or stones (mostly). Quality items cost more, as you’d might expected. Let’s put £25 here, but it could widely vary.
9. Lamp: you need a good lighting to guide your carving. It is such a mandatory item to work with precision. Cost: £15
10. Rasps: you will need to put your hands on a set of rasps (various shapes and formats – round and straight, etc.)
    • Remarks:
      • Consider buying the superior “Shinto” saw file rasp (extraordinarily useful) for £25
      • You will need to learn how to ‘sharpen’ a rasp using a file and a burnisher – there’s a host of videos on YouTube about this³
      • I’ve bought a set of rasps in AliExpress specifically for violin making: I could be wrong, but I don’t feel they are “burnishable”, if you know what I mean (they are so thin!). Well, they seem to work just fine.
    • One set of fine rasps cost about £20
11. Files: you will need a good set (for working with wood only – buy another set for metal), round and straight, costing about £25
12. Wood Marking Gauge (or wood scriber): there’s several styles, one uses a wheel to mark, other use a small pin, etc. Cost: £10
13. Chisels: firmer ones of size ¼ (8mm), ½ (12mm), and 1’’ (26mm), cost varies immensely, as you might acquire them used, etc. Let’s put £20 here (you might not “need” all of those actually, unless you’ll think on working with wood).
14. Sacrilegious items:
    • Sand paper: oh, how unconscionable and disparate, well, let’s put £5 here (optional, given you’ll have your rasps).
    • PVA glue: I’ve seen people glueing the purfling with PVA glue (oh no, not again, what a profanity of the old Cremonese methods!), and let’s put £15 (optional).
    • Nails: I went too far… you don’t need this… I saw violins with a nail on the neck though – I need to investigate this further.

Specific violin making tools

1. Moulds: there’s a plethora of moulds in violin making made out of different materials. For instance, there’s wood (plywood, MDF, etc.), acrylic/plastic, metal (aluminium), and so on.
   • Base mould (skeleton): it’ll depend on the model you chosen (Stradivari? del Gesù? Guadagnini?). There’s aluminium molds for sale at Dictum that it is high-quality, as well as curvatures. Cost is about £30 for an aluminium one.
   • Curvature/arching: you could find this online or also buy at Dictum, in aluminium, for a decent price: £10 for the back and £1 for the top.
2. Clamps: you will need some clamps of different sizes and mouth opening lengths (largest will be to use in the soundbar). Cost: £30 (it varies a lot on choices and types). You could make your own and adapt clothes pins for the lining clamps, for instance.
3. Thumb planes: Also called finger planes, you will need a set of at least three of different sizes: two concave and one straight. Each one on AliExpress is about £12 (with shipping).
4. Gouges: you will need this – this is a mandatory item. They will have an outside bevel (or outcannel, out-cannel – there’s a fruitful discussion on Maestronet). I’d recommend buying three sizes: ¼ (8mm), ½ (12mm), and 1’’ (26mm). You could buy a decent set used, and you will need to learn how to sharpen it (‘8’-shaped sharpening). Cost: let’s put £25 here – it varies widely.
5. Purfling cutter: for marking the purfling position on the plates. Cost is £10 in AliExpress.
6. Purfling chisel or pick: used for creating the grooves for purfling. You could make your own, but perhaps you could spend £25 on one.
7. Knifes: for basic carving, cutting the f-holes, marking the purfling, etc. They come in different sizes, and bevel types. Let’s put £15 here.
   • Comment: I’ve got one “Swann Morton Standard Scalpel Handle” (Model No.3) costing £5, with cheap (£7 for 20 blades) to replace blades (model 10A) that I use for particular tasks (YouTube video on how to replace the blades: How to replace a blade safely on Swann Morton No 3 metal craft knife)
8. Glueing related: besides the glue itself, it might be useful to have a heating lamp (depending on your place of work, this might be quite useful to heat the wood before applying the glue), a cheap crockpot to heat the hide glue, a glass thermometer, and brushes. Let’s put £25 on this.
9. Depth-gauge: check/measure depths in belly and back. On AliExpress this costs £27.
10. Rib Bending Iron: for bending the ribs, purflings, and linings. Cost: £27.
11. Bridge template: For adjusting the bridge. Cost: £5.
12. Hole reamer and peg shaver: For adjusting the nuts. Cost: £30
13. Set sound post kit: Cost: £10
14. Violin parts: for assembly final piece – Shoulder rest, Fine tuner, Tuning fork, Tuning peg set, Chinrest, Chinrest wrench, Adjustable plating chinrest adjuster, Tail piece with fine tuner(s), Tail gut, Violin strings, Fine tuner spinner adjusters, Endpins, Parchment (for bridges), tail saddle, and nut. Cost: £25 (for making one violin).
15. Strings: well, you’ll need a string set to play the violin, a decent set (Tonica Brand) is about £40.
16. Shellac flakes and varnishing items: Choices here also varies a lot. Let’s put £25 here.

I won’t mention here the items required for testing frequencies and modes. You would have to acquire sound amplifiers, decent microphones (for capturing the sounds) and get acquainted on using special software like Audacity (for instance) to make this work.

Other things I’m not addressing here:

• Separation tool (ultra thin ‘spatula’), useful if working with restaurateur work – one could modify a thin filler’s knife for this.
• Other woodworker things: cleaning brush, block plane (N.60 and 1/2) – it can be useful, block sander, etc.
• A poster of the violin you plan to make: it’s interesting to own one of those.

Other things you’ll need

• Tonewood: you’ll need to buy the wood for making the violin, mostly maple, spruce, and ebony parts. I very basic set would cost about £150 (with VAT+shipping).
• Hide glue: this one is a must, so you can repair your instruments if needed. It costs about £5 for 100g (AliExpress).
• Purfling strips: buy a lot of those, it’s about £10 on AliExpress.
• Bridge: some bridges will be required. They are cheap though, with varying materials and overall quality.

Vendors

• Facebook’s Marketplace: good source of woodworking items – especially if you track UK items, sometimes you might find very good stuff.
• Ebay: very good source of used (and new) items as well.
• AliExpress: a lot of items are for sale in this platform. Do mind though about quality, I’ve bought defective items there (they refunded me, however, the item itself was low-quality).
• Amazon: very good for basic items, not for violin making though (very pricey stuff) and, in the end, they might come from the same vendor at AliExpress!
• Dictum: specialised store for luthiers.

Final tally

Assuming you are buying those items (not making some – see next subsection “Things you can make” below), here’s the final tally: £100.

• General woodworking
  • Obvious things: £10
  • Vise: £25 (used)
  • Plane N.4 (used): £15
  • Japanese saw (ryoba): £25
  • Fret saw: £15
  • Sharpening station: £25
  • Lamp: £15
  • Rasps: £20
  • Shinto saw file rasp: £25
  • Files: £25
  • Wood marking gauge: £10
  • Chisels: £20
  • Sand paper and PVA glue: £20
• Violin making related
  • Moulds: £50
  • Clamps: £30
  • Thumb planes: £36
  • Gouges: £25
  • Purfling cutter: £10
  • Purfling chisel: £25
  • Knives: £15
  • Glueing related: £25
  • Depth gauge: £27
  • Rib Bending Iron: £25
  • Bridge Template: £5
  • Hole reamer and peg shaver: £30
  • Set sound post kit: £10
  • Violin parts: £25
  • Strings: £40
  • Varnishing: £25
• Materials
  • Tonewood: £150
  • Purfling strips: £10
  • Brige: £5 (high quality)
• Hide glue (small package): £5

Must haves (not including ‘grayed’ out items): £180 (general woodworking), plus £363 (violin), plus £150 (trying to go ‘ cheaper on wood somehow) = £693

Well, it’s a reasonable price to pay, after all, for such a high gratifying hobby (if you were thinking on becoming just an amateur violin maker⁴).

And remember, before embarking on becoming a professional luthier or violin maker, remember, that there’s is no point taking a very nice hobby and turning it into a business. Of course that’s just my opinion.

Stop and think.

Things you can make on your own

• Rasps: you could use old saws or some filler knives (used by painters) to modify and create your shapes and preferred formats.
  • If you decide to go on this track, you’ll need to buy a “hacksaw” (£15) as well. And be prepared: working with metal is way different than working with wood! 😀
• Clamps: a lot of clamping could use only wood. See previous post on this.
• Compass: it is used throughout the build of a violin.
• Wood marking gauge: it’s a simple and gratifying project to make.
• Moulds: you could make a lot of moulds for your violin making, like base moulds, curvature moulds, etc.
• Purfling: technically speaking, you could make your own purfling out of wood sandwiched together. There’s some YouTube videos detailing the process. Be prepared to work with dies, and whatnot.
• Purfling cutter and Purfling chisel: well, you could make your own purfling items, modifying other tools altogether.
• Sacconi Compass: nice project to inspect your carving.
• Fingerboard template + base: work on making your own templates and on a base to turn into the desired shape.
• See my “Generic woodworking projects”.

Epilogue

Hope you have enjoyed this budgeting exercise. Before embarking on this project I did just that: how much would it cost me to kickstart all of this? The answer is in this post.

And remember, there’s also some other things you could buy: books, The Strad posters, and other items, which I haven’t commented here.

Footnotes:

1. I’m commenting again here: no need to put the plane to rest in the side position; it’s not safe. Only if you leave a lot of metal items on top of your workbench. The plane should be put on top of the wood bench, with the blade in the downwards position. I know this is somewhat controversial, however, there’s videos on YouTube explaining this ad infinitum. You could also check out my list of useless discussions in woodworking. ↩︎
2. I don’t follow the manichean idea of ‘western’ vs ‘other’ approaches in woodworking; I’ll use the best tool for the job, regardless of its ‘philosophy’. ↩︎
3. I’ve seen also people using a grinder to ‘sharpen’ a rasp. I have such mixed feeling about this that I can’t share here, simply put, I’m yet to understand why they do it, perhaps there’s a reason for not simply using a burnisher. ↩︎
4. Amateur doesn’t have a derogatory meaning – on the very contrary. The notions of amateur (“for love”) vs professional (“for money”) are certainly different. The meaning from 1786 is that an amateur is “one who cultivates and participates (in something) but does not pursue it professionally or with an eye to gain” (as opposed to a professional). From the same source: “one who has a taste for some art, study, or pursuit, but does not practice it” from French ‘amateur’, ie, “one who loves, lover”. ↩︎